The Onyx2 is a really cool machine to look at and have in your collection, but it definitely wouldn't be my goto SGI machine for daily use, for reasons which should be obvious.

What are your thoughts regarding the Onyx2 and what would you use it for?

What have your thoughts been when comparing it's performance to that of a Tezro, or an octane for that matter, especially when you consider the difference in noise, power consumption and the draught it causes (anyone who has run one of these machines before would know that it creates "gale force winds" when it operates)?

I think that a good name for my machine could be Storm.

Last edited by Irinikus on Thu Jan 25, 2018 9:03 am, edited 7 times in total.

My interest in the Onyx2 is one of pure curiosity. At some point I would like to run an IR4 setup in mine, in order to gauge it's performance versus other SGI machines.

I would really like to see how good the IR4 graphics system is myself, and the onyx2 is the best platform to use, in order to do this IMHO, as the graphics pipeline is incorporated into the machine (no separate unit required).

The only thing that I think will dissapiont me with this system will be its geometry performance. According to SUN, the XVR-4000 has nine times the geometry performance of the IR3 graphics system, and the IR4 makes use of the same geometry engine module as the IR3, so I think that where the IR4 could come short is in it's geometry performance even tough it has loads of raster and texture memory.

I have managed to load the IR3 to the point where it becomes a bit jerky, by opening up multiple SGI demos simultaneously and the vertex count in the models found in these demos is not astronomical. (four to five demos running simultaneously)

I suppose that its power is more orientated around pixel fill rate, and therefore better performance with larger textures and higher resolutions. I personally don't think that it's geometry performance matches it's texture performance though. I therefore definitely believe that they should also have offered an upgraded geometry engine module in the IR4 setup.

I absolutely understand that this is an old system and that you can't expect mind blowing performance from it.